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timw

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What ho!

I'm having problems with hop debris blocking my boiler as I drain down the finished wort into my fermenter.....

I have a mango chutney barrel boiler, with a 22-mm ball valve - on the spigot inside the boiler I have two elbows, in a sort of S-shape, which drop down then out again and onto that I have a 6inch length of 22mm copper pipe, crimped shut at the end. That's roughly parallel with the base of the boiler, give or take. There's at least an inch, probably two, of "dead" space beneath the tube.

That pipe has 2mm holes drilled all over it randomly, aside from the top-most "side" of that tube, as I was expecting the hops to sink and gather on that bit.

Anyway - cut a long story short - its a pain in the wotnot as any brew with decent amounts of hops end up with it getting clogged and draining annoyingly slowly or as tonight's brew proved, not at all. I repeatedly had to StarSan my arm and reach in to disconnect it.... shake it out...connect....repeat...repeat....repeat - it must have added an hour to the brewday.

All done in a sub-zero potting shed.

Anyway - what do others have on the end of their spigot...

Holes? Or slits....? i could cut some hacksaw blade slits in the underside?

Is there a good product out there that I can just fit onto the 22mm ballvalve spigot??


It's served me well this boiler so far, considering it cost about a tenner to knock up. So any tips on resolving this irritating issue much appreciated.
 
I purchased a large mesh bag to contain the hops when boiling. You can then lift it out after the boil and let them drain. I was advised not to squeeze the hops, just sparge them, otherwise you may get a metallic taste like tinned beer did all those years ago.
 
I brew in two ways. One is BIAB with a copper hop filter I got from The Homebrew Company, which they don't sell any more. It isn't dissimilar to the image below. It clogs so I put the hops in a large nylon bag. Even then it can clog with the break material and I just vibrate it with a mash paddle to get it running again, or use the paddle to scrape along it and dislodge the stuff that blocks it.
3471279344_9a09d39c53.jpg


I also have a Bulldog Brewer, with a bazooka filter:
Image(14).jpg


This usually works great for recirculating the wort, but again I put the hops in a bag because otherwise it blocks and I have to get the mash paddle out again.

On my wish list is a lauter helix. These things can fit around the edge of your boiler, so you can whirlpool everything in the middle and then drain from the edge.
LauterHelix_1190470.jpg

I've seen these for sale on a Dutch or Belgian site, I can't remember, and might splash out on one at some point.
 
Firstly I use a hop spider for pellet hops with a 400 micron filter. ...I squeeze hell out of it at the end...especially with flame out hops...no funny taste!
My boiler has a bazooka filter. After chilling I wait a big for thd break material to settle then just cracked the tap to start a very slow flow. This pulls a load of break gently to the filter I then increase and let it drain to the fv. Most of the break is left in the boiler. I lose a litre or so after a gentle tilt..
 
Mr Gunge has pointed me in the direction of shoving wire wool in the pipe. Going to give it a go on my next brew.

What I'll do is fill a roughly 3" length of 15mm pipe with wire wool and have it on the downstream side of the valve. That way if it clogs I can shut the valve, remove it, clean or replace as necessary.
 
I do like the look of the later helix that IanM has suggested. I've just never been able to find any for sale or parts to make one anywhere online
 
Mr Gunge has pointed me in the direction of shoving wire wool in the pipe. Going to give it a go on my next brew.

What I'll do is fill a roughly 3" length of 15mm pipe with wire wool and have it on the downstream side of the valve. That way if it clogs I can shut the valve, remove it, clean or replace as necessary.

Good idea... but just scrunching it loosely on the inside of the tap works fine. Do you trust me enough after taking my advice on the SS braid, that is the question!

Edit- just thought.... your idea would not work as the hops will clog the tap before reaching the steel wool; it has to filter the hops before reaching the tap.
 
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Good idea... but just scrunching it loosely on the inside of the tap works fine. Do you trust me enough after taking my advice on the SS braid, that is the question!

Edit- just thought.... your idea would not work as the hops will clog the tap before reaching the steel wool; it has to filter the hops before reaching the tap.

Glad I mentioned that idea then. That'll save me a faff for nothing. Cheers!
 
On my wish list is a lauter helix. These things can fit around the edge of your boiler, so you can whirlpool everything in the middle and then drain from the edge.
LauterHelix_1190470.jpg

I've seen these for sale on a Dutch or Belgian site, I can't remember, and might splash out on one at some point.

Its a Belgian site - https://homebrewshop.be/en/filtering-sparging/959-mattmill-läuterhexe-1000.html

I know others swear by them but I've used mine three times in my BIAB pot and no matter what I do I can't get more than about a pint through it before it blocks (using pellets).

It did however result in my clearest wort yet though, as last time I tried it I was prepared for the potential blocking with a sanitised syphon at hand.
I'd whirlpooled and left to settle, and rather than dusturbing all the gunk at the bottom on the pot trying to get the wort through the filter I just syphoned the wort out, leaving it all behind - I kegged/bottled this batch last night and finished with about 1.5L more beer than usual, as there was minimal trub in the FV.
 
I was advised not to squeeze the hops, just sparge them, otherwise you may get a metallic taste like tinned beer did all those years ago.

That was bad advice you received there. You can squeeze all those flavoursome juices out as hard as you like without any negative impact on flavour.
 
Yeah it is called a lauter helix and does look like it could clog from pellets.

I'm getting closer to the idea of letting it settle and syphoning. I'll try the wire first though as that does seem as though it'll work.
 
My ace boiler just has a SS mesh tube filter. It does tend to clog up with brews with low amounts of hops - it's the hot break gunge that does the clogging. Hoppy IPAs never clog it but brown ales and honey ales are a nightmare. You can keep it running with the brown ale by continually scraping it with your brewing spoon, but the honey ale clogs it completely. So then I have to either syphon the wort out, or simply pour the whole lot into the FV. Funnily enough the resulting beer is totally unaffected by fermenting with the hops and break gunge in the FV.
The advantage of the mesh filter is that if it's draining well you can tip the boiler when you get near the bottom and drain out every last drop of wort. I'd hate to leave any behind!
 
I just use one of those stainless steel pot scourers stretched loosely over the elbow from the bulkhead connector. the elbow is turned toward the bottom of the kettle. It works very well and has never clogged, (it did drain a bit slow when I brewed a rye ale), A little tilt while draining leaves only about half a litre. When finished I just rinse it under the tap and use it to clean up.
I have just started using a hop spider, but only to make cleaning up a little easier. I hate scooping up handfuls of soggy hops.
 

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